Observers Report Flaws in Yemen Elections

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Associated Press Writer

Early returns from Yemen's parliamentary elections showed the ruling party with about 75 percent of the votes counted so far, but monitors charged the balloting was flawed.

The elections Sunday were marred by political intimidation, underage voting, vote buying and other "significant flaws," a group of independent observers from the Washington-based National Democratic Institute said Tuesday.

One more person who was shot during election day died on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to four, officials said.

Results from 153 of the 301 constituencies, meanwhile, showed President Ali Abdullah Saleh's party had won 117 of those seats, the national elections commission said Tuesday.

The Islamic Reform party took 17 seats; the Socialist party won four; the Nasserite and Baathist parties had two each; while independents secured 11 seats, according to results so far.

A security official at the ministry of interior said some 25 people were injured during Sunday's balloting _ up from 12 initially reported.

At a news conference Tuesday, Khaled Abdel Wahab al-Sherif, president of the Supreme Commission for Elections, confirmed that underage voting took place in some constituencies, but said it was "limited" and due to "inaccuracy in registration."

Opposition parties accused the ruling party of trying to fix results.

The observers' report also said ruling party commissioners obstructed the vote counting procedures, which led in some cases to altering party leads.

Government officials said that claims of vote-rigging were unsubstantiated.